Eric Pietkiewicz

103,090pages on
this wiki

Eric Pietkiewicz, sometimes referred to as "Pitt" for short, is one of The Gang's original members. Having attended Central Junior High with Terry Mulrenin, Mike Paprocki, and Bill Pappas, Eric was a mainstay of the group for many years.

1 History with The Gang
2 As A Character
- 2.1 In The Gangverse
3 Filmography
4 Links

History with The GangEdit

During his 8th grade year at Central Junior High, Eric was brought into the newly-formed Gang through sitting with Mike, Pappas, and Ben Palacios at their alphabetically-assigned lunch table. Eric was also in several classes with Mike, which led to several misadventures (such as getting lost on a field trip to the zoo and later using hundreds of tickets won at Hollywood Park all on boings). After graduating from 8th grade, Eric moved on to Marist High School, which separated him completely from the rest of The Gang. However, Mike and Terry were determined to keep in touch with him, and he was present on the fateful trip to the mall when the idea for filming Doin' Stuff was born.

Eric was involved in much of Doin' Stuff's production, and had almost as much screen time as Terry, Mike and Pap. This made him the first person to fill the "4th spot" in the ever-changing core group of The Gang. He was occasionally hard to get a hold of thanks to his booming lawn-mowing business, which led to his characterization in the movie as being somewhat grass-obsessed. When the movie was released in 2000, he was one of the small crowd to attend the makeshift premiere at Terry's house.

Being at a completely different high school than the rest of The Gang made it tough to keep in contact with Eric. Though he was slated to return in Doin' Stuff 2 (and was even included in the opening credits), the movie never made it far enough to include him. It would be almost a whole year before Eric was contacted again and brought back in 2001 to play the role of Master Chen in Shenmue: The Gang Edition.

After production wrapped on Shenmue in 2002, Eric once again faded to the background, officially giving up his spot in the core group to Jay Slykas. Over time, he was only called upon rarely for filming. He wouldn't return to a Gang movie until the final part of The Search for Pappas in 2003, when he made a cameo along with Ben, Adam Oster, and Erik Morales near the end of the movie. That particular scene was shot the same day as The Gang Reunion, which brought all the members together for the first time in over a year for a trip to Hooter's before heading off to college.

After The Search for Pappas, Eric became somewhat of a "fallback actor," and he was only contacted by The Gang when a last-minute role needed to be filled. Though the character of Master Chen did not appear in 2004's Shenmue II: TGE, Eric was called upon for a quick cameo as a thug in one of the many scenes that take place in the Beverly Hills Wharf. Eric was given a role as a solo-thug that got hassled by Terry's character, and the scene was intentionally played out to reflect a scene between Eric and Terry from the original Doin' Stuff.

In typical last-minute fashion, Terry called on Eric to step in as a gangster in DS4's Royben's Daisy on the day of the shoot. In 2005, as production began on The Gang Wars, Eric was brought back along with almost everyone else from The Gang's history for a cameo in the nightmare sequence that sees the Council of Elders hunting down all the group's members. Eric's cameo unexpectedly turned into a major role when Eric Weber dropped out of the movie. Figuring he could easily be replaced with another Eric, Eric Pitt was called in last minute to join the UIC crew during the downtown shoot. This would be Eric's final major role in a Gang movie. Though he made a quick cameo as Eric the Dancing Bear in DS5's "Gang's Greatest Hits" video, he was unavailable to reprise the role of Master Chen in Shenmue III: TGE in 2006 (although Mike and Terry held out hope until the last possible minute that he might come through). Eric also returned for a cameo at the ending of The Final Jerkoff, in which he reminisces with Ben about how "the movies were a lot funnier" when they were in them. He has been out of contact since then, presumably making millions of dollars off lawn mowing.

As A CharacterEdit

Like most of The Gang, Eric has played himself in most of The Gang's original movies.

In The GangverseEdit

Eric is shown to be a member of The Gang in DS1, having been friends with Terry, Mike and Bill at Central Junior High. His character seems to based entirely on an obsession with grass - specifically, the cutting of grass. While sitting in class, he fantasizes about mowing a lawn, and his worst nightmare is shown to be a world in which there's no more need for lawn maintenance. Eric also has a secret identity as Eric the Dancing Bear, which is just him but doing a funny little jig. In the film's alternate future, Eric is shown to have cut five lawns before the day was done.

Eric disappeared for a few years, presumably on an extended grass-cutting excursion, but he answered The Gang's call for help at the end of The Search for Pappas, when he arrived with Ben, Oster, and Morales to help defeat the Dark Mike. Sometime after that, Eric took up a job as the main grounds keeper at UIC, where he would encounter the UIC Gang and join them on a mission to rescue Mike and Terry from the Council of Elders. Following the destruction of the Council's HQ, he presumably returned to his grounds keeper duties at UIC. He would not be seen again until after the Stalker Boy incident, when he attended the Shenmue IV premiere party at Mike's house.